1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is drawn to an automated questioner for assisting in the diagnosis and treatment of medical problems. In one particular embodiment, the invention diagnoses and creates a treatment plan for Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. In addition, it elicits, analyzes and organizes the patient""s medical history, symptoms and lab results to make a complete medical history and illness record in medical record format.
2. Description of Related Art
Medicine is a rapidly changing field that changes faster than doctors can learn. Also, the time a doctor has for each patient has decreased to an average visit of 8 minutes. Both of these factors compromise a doctor""s ability to properly care for patients.
One example is the treatment of Fibromyalgia (FMS). Fibromyalgia, which currently affects an estimated 3 to 6 million Americans, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) are two illnesses which often coexist. Severe persistent fatigue, diffuse migratory pain, cognitive dysfunction, and disordered sleep are common symptoms that patients often report in these overlapping syndromes. Current hypotheses suggest that many triggers can initiate a cascade of events, causing hypothalamic dysfunction and associated loss of normal circadian cycling. This may result in some of the changes reported in FMS and/or CFS. These include:
1. Disordered sleep with associated pain. Disordered sleep (as well as hormonal and other changes) may cause immune dysfunction ( e.g., Natural Killer Cell dysfunction and decreased proliferate responses and opportunistic infections).
2. Hormonal deficiencies and hypothalamic-pituitary-target gland axis dysfunction. These can also contribute to the neurotransmitter changes seen in FMS.
3. Autonomic dysfunctionxe2x80x94including Neurally Mediated Hypotension (NMH).
Some authors have also suspected macro and micro nutrient deficiencies. In an initial pilot study and a subsequent placebo-controlled study, it was found that simultaneously treating the above problems resulted in significant clinical improvement. Which mix of treatments was needed, however, varied from patient to patient.
Although a concept that is sometimes uncomfortable and foreign to our way of thinking, the need for multiple interventions can occur when an illness affects a critical control center (such as the hypothalamus) that impacts the multiple systems noted above. A single treatment that reverses the hypothalamic dysfunction directly has not yet been found. Thus, this situation is different from illnesses that affect a single target organ, which can be treated with a single treatment. For example, the pituitary dysfunction itself often requires treatment with many treatments simultaneously and hypothalamic dysfunction disables several critical systems in addition to the pituitary gland. It has therefore been found that an integrated treatment approach based on simultaneously treating the above problems, even if a modest degree of suspicion is present, will be clinically beneficial in FMS.
Although a complex treatment protocol, it has been found that this integrated approach will assist in proper diagnosis and treatment plans. Unlike previous diagnosis and treatment plans, the present invention does not merely seek to find the cause of and cure for symptoms. Instead, the present invention analyzes symptoms and lab tests to identify the root causes of the problems causing the symptoms and to enable an effective treatment protocol to be determined for each patient. As discussed above, this may not come from a single source but may have many different causes. The present invention evaluates for each of the causes and creates an effective treatment plan. In particular the present invention (1) evaluates Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and creates an effective treatment plan to find the root causes of the symptoms and provide a remedy for each root cause resulting in an effective treatment, (2) acts as a computerized physician to elicit and analyze a thorough patient medical history and lab tests, thereby determining the diagnosis for overall day to day medical problems, determining what further tests are needed and creates a medical record for any sick or healthy patient.
The present invention is an automated questionnaire for assisting in the diagnosis and treatment of medical problems of a patient. The questionnaire has a basic symptom module that gathers basic symptom information of the patient and assigns point values to the basic symptom information. A systems review module gathers system information of the patient and assigns point values to the system information and a diagnosis module that evaluates the basic symptom information point values and the system information point values to determine a possible diagnosis.
The present invention is also a method for assisting in the diagnosis and treatment of medical problems of a patient. The method has the steps of gathering basic symptom information of the patient and assigning point values to the basic symptom information, gathering system information of the patient and assigning point values to the system information, and evaluating the basic symptom information point values and the system information point values to determine a possible diagnosis.